Limerick receives update on Bancroft library
Limerick Township council were given an update on the new Bancroft library build by Andra Kauffeldt, general manager with the Town of Bancroft, at their meeting on April 15. Kauffeldt updated council on the build, saying that they intended to put shovels in the ground this fall and have the new library built by next year. Kauffeldt comments on her presentation to The Bancroft Times.
Kauffelt presented an update on the new Bancroft library build, called North Hastings Inspiration Place, at their meeting on April 15. She said that rumours that the library build had been cancelled were erroneous, and that everything was alive and well. “We’re on our way to having shovels in the ground this fall, to begin the underwater storm management systems and stuff. We did a lot of work last year during our downtown construction project, doing some of the preliminary water management things we needed to do. The drawings and schematics are at about 70 per cent complete at this point. The site plan pre-approved package has been submitted with comments and we’re just waiting for the next phase of that,” she says.
Kauffeldt says that the delay to the project was really nobody’s fault. She said that cost overruns and supply issues due to COVID-19 affected the start date for both the library, which is on the first floor of the new build, and the apartments, which will occupy the top three floors, as construction costs skyrocketed. “Costs are starting to come down, interest rates are starting to level out, so it’s getting things back on track to really be able to start building,” she says. The Town of Bancroft has $1.8 million in funding ready for the new build according to Kauffeldt; $1.3 million from the federal and provincial governments in grants and $500,000 that the town put in to the project. She said that around $500,000 had been paid in expenses to date, so the project was very much alive and well. She said they are discussing next steps with their partners on how to move forward and finalize legal requirements regarding ownership of the new building. They have until 2026 to complete the new build with the grant money they have in place. “Any meeting where the library has come up will have heard me say ‘no matter what, there’s going to be a library here in 2026, even if there isn’t an apartment on top of it.’ But we’re really being patient and trying to work with our development partners because there’s such a terrible need for housing. We feel it would be a big missed opportunity in a way that we could support the development of housing within the community alongside the library project. One way or another, the library is happening, but we really hope it’s a library with three floors of housing on top of it,” she says.
In response to a question from Councillor Shawn Pack, Kauffeldt said the new build was a strata ownership model, with the Town owning the first-floor library and parking lot, the developer owning the top three floors of apartments, and them having shared ownership of things like the foundation and the roof. The apartments will be seniors’ apartments, for those aged 55 years and older, and they’re currently talking about possibly adding an additional floor of living units.
Kauffeldt said that the cost back in 2019/2020 was around $5.8 million, but that this ICF build (insulated concrete forms, which are hollow foam blocks that are stacked into the shape of the exterior walls of a building, reinforced with steel rebar and filled with concrete) had now increased to around $8 to 10 million. “So, stay tuned, more to come. We’re definitely excited to get some shovels in the ground. The storm water system for this particular build is very intricate and detailed. I don’t know how many metres of underground piping we have to put in to collect the runoff. So we have to have an underground storage capacity system so we’re hoping to get that into the ground this fall and have all those systems in place,” she says.
Kauffeldt told The Bancroft Times that Limerick council invited someone from the Town of Bancroft to update them on the new library’s progress. “We provided them with updates about what we’ve done to date and what we anticipate in the coming months and provided assurance that we are proceeding with the project. The presentation went well and I feel it was well received. We are excited about the project and thrilled that others share our enthusiasm,” she says. “We do not have plans to visit other municipalities at this time, but are happy to do so if we are invited.”
Michael Riley, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Bancroft Times
